Organizational Strategy, Structure and Process

Summary

In this article the authors have briefly discussed about the strategy, structure and process which are very
much important in organizational level. Organizations made strategies and to accomplish such strategies;
structure and processes have been pursued. Effective organizations have carve out their shape and maintain a
viable market, make strategies for long term purposes despite of ineffective organizations which are align
and fails to be in market and do struggling with structure and process mechanisms. The whole article has
been divided into four topics of discussion.

 How organization adapt such strategies?

 What processes are adapt to accomplish such strategies?
 How many alternative organizational forms are there for adaptation?
 What is the relation between organizational forms and latest theories of management?

The authors have described the generic form of organizational strategy, structure and process but they have
discussed an example of a company on these terms as on specific problems. This organization is efficiently
producing products but now they want change in their organization to produce new product according to
market need and the level market opportunity. For this purpose the top management change the strategy of
production and market. They hired a new personal who has both experience in creating new product by
process improvement and has cost effectiveness and has knowledge of market need and opportunity.

To adapt any strategy, there are mainly three broad problems here to discuss. These problems should be
discussed before adapting such strategies according to their condition and circumstances.

The problems are as follows.

 Entrepreneurial problem
 Engineering problem
 Administrative problem

Firstly, the entrepreneurial problem is very much common because it creates resistance to change and for
ongoing organization it is an addition of any thought, process, change etc. and for changing in organizational
level, the top management should accept and it is very much compulsory for them because solutions have
already been done by engineering & administrative departments. Overall it is the responsibility of top
management to have such change in organization which shows efficiency, size and innovation. Secondly,
management finalizes the engineering process for particular problem and these thoughts and process
techniques comes from entrepreneurs which creates modification in ongoing process, have new technique
and to implement such modifications and applying innovatory techniques the administration have to work on
it. Thirdly, to solve entrepreneurial and engineering problems, the administration in which top management
lies will do so, they make such policy and procedures to level the uncertainty in organization and stabilize
the environment which is created by both problems. It is leading and lagging variable in which it follows
structure and process under strategy in lagging role and to adapt such strategies for future aspects in leading
role. To overcome these three problems, strategies have been made and for implementation there are three
strategies i.e. Defenders, Prospectors and Analyzers for structure and process and one strategy Reactor
which is failure one in terms of structure and process.

Defenders are the on the top level because it has top management to pursue the strategies, maintain stability
in the organization, give the solution of entrepreneurial problem and give competitive pricing or high quality
product according to their strategies. Prospectors are on second number because they do their work
according to environment and they are more reliable than defenders. They focus on profitability, finding and
exploit new things and always in mode of continuous improvement and willing to have change in
organizational level. They have broad planning at top management level and need flexibility in structure and
process so that all the organizational level personal will have ease to access. It will be effective and suitable
for administration. Analyzers are on third number and they are combination of defenders & prospectors.
They have alternative strategy other than both of them. They have the ability to minimize the risk instead of
maximizing the opportunity. In somehow it is also called a balance because they stabilize both the strategies
and clear the confliction between defenders and prospectors. They use matrix organization which means
make structure and process for any new change in organization like new product, market development, and
new technology etc. reactors are on final shape because they do not make strategies. They do work when any
other external force pushes them to do any change. They have instability in their environment. They are in
the form of residual strategy because other strategies are not pursued in them. Here is the top management
has no team, there is one man army decisions. They do not have proper policy and procedure for structure
and process, they just do work whenever they need and maintain or stable the current strategy-structure by
management.

Finally the authors have discussed the linkages of management theory to organizational strategy & structure.
There are three basic management theory which will be linked to it.

 Assumptions about human relations & behaviors

 Managerial policies are consistent with these assumptions.
 If implemented these policies then expectations of employee performance.

Before discussing the above theories, the authors narrate three models which lies in management theory.
Firstly, traditional model, the managers used this model in later 19th century and early 20th century in which
some employees could be expected to perform up to some standard and few show outstanding performance.
Secondly, human relation model, it is transferred from traditional to human relation and used in forties and
fifties of 20th century. In this model the employees could do better work and more expecting despite of
traditional, the employees take part in organizational activities which lead the performance more better.
Thirdly, human resources model which starts in mid-fifties of 20th century and it is the latest model which
is using by many organizations now a days. In this model, employees have free decision making power
which enhances the performance of organization, they make their rules in better way which creates capacity
and motivation in them which lead to success.

In simple wording the traditional & human relation model lies in defender & reactors while human resources
model is in prospectors & analyzers. Traditional or human relational model could not lead prospector
because of decision making power as human resources can lead defender. Human resources have the
abilities to have suggestions in planning and operation. Analyzers show both defenders & prospectors
abilities so traditional & human resources may have confliction. To solve this problem organizations have
mix strategy but focuses on human resources.
Article Summary (Group 5)

Organizational Strategy, Structure and Process

This article presents a theoretical frame work which explains the organizational adaptation process with the
context of organizational Strategy, Structure and Process. Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process
focus on how organizations adapt to their environment. An organizational strategy is the sum of the
actions a company intends to take to achieve long-term goals. Organization Structure is a system used
to define a hierarchy within an organization. It identifies each job, its function and where it reports to within
the organization. The frame work has two major elements (i) a general model of adaptation process (ii) an
organizational typology.
Adaptation process needs to change in product/good, services, market and in administrative structure. But
these changes face many problems like Entrepreneurial problem, Engineering problem and Administrative
problem. In established organizations these problems are solved simultaneously by managers but some time
it is not as it planned. In some circumstances these problems occur sequentially. Adaptive cycle is helpful to
cope with these sequential problems.
General model of the adaptive process conducted by the managers of the organizations is called the adaptive
cycle.
There are three problems in the organizations adapting process:
I. The entrepreneurial problem
II. The engineering problem
III. The administrative problem
Entrepreneurial problems are considered as an additional dimension in an ongoing organization.
Entrepreneurial problems are emerging whenever new technology and innovation occur. Managers have to
overcome this problem with high commitment and responsibility. Because other problems like engineering
and administrative problems will be cleared after entrepreneurial problem. Engineering problem involves the
creation of a system which operationalizes management’s solution to the entrepreneurial problem which
requires management to select appropriate technology for implementation. The Administrative Problem
Smoothes out and makes organizations problem solving activities more efficient Problem solving activities
means those very problems which are faced during The Entrepreneurial Problem and The Engineering
problem phases. Its aim is to reduce uncertainty within the organization.

The three defined strategic types of organizations are:

(I) Defenders (II) Prospector (III) Analyzers (IV) Reactors

Following are the characteristics of the typologies in given table.

Defenders Prospectors

1 Stability Exploring new product and market

2 Continuous product and market Sales/marketing plus R & D is more power
development full

3 Strict administrative control Flexible in technology and administration

4 Formal hierarchical structure Innovator as whole

5 Central control Decentralization span of control

6 Performance based benefits Risk and reward as high risk involved

7 Experience employees High profitability

8 Cost defective technology and Continue growth

procedures

Analyzers Reactors

1 Combine Innovation with stability Always reactive to market and environment

2 Enhance profitability with stability Instable

3 Analyze risk when explore or innovate Poor strategic planning

new market/product.

4 Create equilibrium when admin and Non structured

engineering problems.

5 Matrix structure Rigidity or lack to change process

6 Hybrid domain Fall behind action in changing environment

Theories of Management are discuss in this article and linked with organizational typology. Three
management theories: Traditional model, Human relations model, Human resources model. Management
theory has three basic components: (i) a set assumption about human attitude and behavior (ii) managerial
policies and actions (iii) expectations about employee’s performance if policies and actions are
implemented. Linkage of theories and typologies is tentative. Generally it is assumed that traditional &
human relation model are linked with defenders and reactors. Human resources model is linked with
analyzer and prospector. It must be noted that universal generalizations or plain correlations shouldn’t be
concluded based on this study and the topic needs more research.
This article is very important for understanding how to organization adapt changes with the environment.
The frame work that is explained is based on interpretation but we can get a lot of ideas and techniques for
organizational change.